


All Things Nice

by aflaminghalo



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Cross-dressed Robins, Gen, I don't know what I'm doing, Not Fluff, Not even in a sexy way though, Not really moop, idek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-28
Updated: 2015-05-28
Packaged: 2018-04-01 17:36:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4028761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aflaminghalo/pseuds/aflaminghalo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are two distinct types of Robin - one that has been dressed as a girl, and one that hasn't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All Things Nice

“Grayson!”

The heavy wood door of Wayne Manor’s front entrance had barely slid into place behind Dick before Damian came marching towards him through the entrance hall, his chin held at a defiant angle. Dick sighed and rolled his eyes to heaven internally, smiling at Damian as he did it.

“Grayson, tell Drake I don’t have to do it.”

“Don’t have to do what?” Dick directed the question to the older teen who had trailed in after Damian. Tim seemed relaxed and amused, but Damian was nearly trembling with indignation and that was never a mix that brought good things. 

Tim held his hands up in a placating gesture. “All I said was…”

“He said that if I didn’t have a growth spurt soon I’d be the next Lulu-Belle. I have seen Lulu-Belle, I am not being Lulu-Belle, Grayson. I refuse.”

Dick looked between the two with confusion. “What’s a Lulu-B - oh…” A deep throb snaked through his temples as an incident from his childhood, from his time as Robin, that, while not repressed, had certainly been locked up in a mental safe and tossed into the deepest abyss of his memory, suddenly surfaced.

“You’ve gone pale, Grayson. You should sit.”

Dick brushed off the small, concerned hand that tugged against his own. “No, I... how the hell did you find out about… you’ve seen Lulu-Belle?”

Tim shrugged, non-committally against Dick’s rising voice. “It was in the files.”

“The files? There are pictures of Lulu-Belle in the files?”

“Of course there are pictures, Grayson. When has Father ever been other than thorough?” Damian's indignance at the threat of being dressed in a skirt transferred seamlessly into indignance at his Father being thought of as anything other than meticulous in his filing systems. 

“I didn’t realize it was meant to be a secret, Dick. It didn’t have a code on it.” Tim’s voice followed him down the hall as he trotted to the cave, as though not breaking out into a full sprint would let him cling to his fading sense of dignity. "We've all been there!" 

* * *

Dick flicked through the photo files with what felt like the beginnings of a compulsion; photograph after photograph of him in various female disguises at various functions flashed across the screen. Some were simple – Lulu-Belle, despite her name had consisted only of a simple dress, hat and wig, while others, like the wedding dress he’d donned once to foil one of the Joker’s schemes had been more elaborate. One dress in particular, an imitation of a dress Marie Antoinette had worn, had been truly awful to wear, pinching him and squeezing him and forever making Dick sorry for the ladies in old paintings. He could appreciate now just how much work, how much money and time must have gone into making it, but his main memory of that dress was still how it had seemed to weigh 50 pounds and had made it impossible for him to take a full breath. And how pleased the guy throwing the ball had been to see Dick in it; how demonstrative... Dick shuddered. It had all been so uncomfortable and so embarrassing. He pressed down on the recycle bin icon.

“Don’t.”

“Bruce, why would you keep these? Why would you even want these?”

“Full records are important, Dick.” Bruce looked at Dick, non-plussed for a moment, as though he couldn't believe he had to explain that basic fact. “Full records do not need to be illustrated by photos of me dressed up like Mary had a little lamb.” Bruce came down the rest of the shallow steps that led to the computer area of the cave, and stood at the side of Dick’s chair, a hand resting casually on the headrest. He paused as though choosing his words, then he gestured to the picture on the screen. “Do you remember that case, that party? We were on the hunt for…”

“Paste Face McGee. He’d been infiltrating society parties by disguising himself as other invitee’s and then holding them hostage.” 

“Whilst an innocent party took the blame, yes. We deduced who he was posing as, and as he ran across the ballroom to escape me you threw a bolo you had hidden under your skirts and he ended up in the punchbowl.”

“Floundering around with pieces of fruit in his wig and his fake nose hanging off.” Dick chuckled at the memory, and stopped as his mentor started. He hadn’t heard that sound in a long time. 

Bruce coughed and looked back at the screen. “You look… You had fun didn’t you, we had fun, when we were young?”

Dick watched Bruce’s face. He looked as though he was far away with a memory, but not one that was hurting him. It was not a look Dick was used to seeing on his mentor. He looked at the photograph, past the dress. It looked as though he had just finished tying Paste Face up properly so they could wait for the police to arrive; and his smile was so wide, he looked so proud. Batman was standing just behind his young partner and their purple stained prisoner and his expression very nearly mirrored Dick’s. He looked like he was having fun. They both did.

Dick reached up to put an awkward hand on Bruce’s arm, patting it lightly. “Yes, yes, we did. Lots.” 

Bruce smiled faintly. “Good, that’s good. Sometimes I think I forget that.” He looked down at the control panel, smile gone. “It is easy to forget, for it to get lost under everything else.”

Dick looked at his hand for what felt like a long time. He sighed heavily, then slid his finger away from the icon, not letting the action complete. “Dammit, Bruce. At least put a password on them.” But he was smiling too. “You know, all the times you had me dressed up like that you’re just lucky I didn’t end up with a taste for it.”

Bruce smirked. “You would have been very nicely dressed if you had.” He turned to leave, ducking his head down next to Dick’s. “Of course, if it’s any consolation, just be thankful that you didn’t have to operate a bosom without supervision.” He pressed his finger on the search icon, opening the index before walking off. “You might like to check under C, for Caroline. There's film footage.”

**Author's Note:**

> Cross-dressing Batboys:  
> Lulu-Belle is from the Batman Sunday Classics (June 1943) and was reprinted in Batman#176  
> The Bride is Batman #46 and Marie Antoinette is from the Batman Daily Strip (Jan 1946) -which I haven't read and have thus taken liberties with.  
> Tim appears as Caroline in Batman #626, and Batman is Mrs Carrington-Bridgewater in Batman #266.
> 
> There's probably more (I hope) but these are the ones I know.


End file.
